MAJOR LEAGUE SOCCER QUOTE SHEET
WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 31, 2005 - D.C. UNITED 5, REAL SALT LAKE 1
D.C. UNITED HEAD COACH PETER NOWAK
On the game:
"Well we had a lot of chances to win the game, that's for sure, but I wasn't happy again with how we started the second half. We have a couple of chances to put this game away and we gave up the goal - that will make (it) really difficult for us. At the end of the day, I'm glad we got the three points and I think it was a step in the right direction, with our mentality and approach tonight and I expect it's going to be in the next couple of weeks, it's going to be the same way - in how we play and how we approach the game."
On whether there was tension in the team after three losses last week:
"I think we know it was a very tough week for us. We know our potential, but as I said, the couple of chances Real have - they made it very difficult for us and we have to be more alert and make sure nothing happens, even if it's 1-0 or 2-0, we just want to make sure nothing happens in the back. Unfortunately, this happens again and we're going to fix it and we're going to fix it very fast."
On Bobby Boswell and keeping his confidence up:
"I think it's for everyone - it's not only for Bobby. Bobby's a rookie, but I think it's for Facundo [Erpen], too. We have tough weeks right now. And as I said, we move forward and we never look over our shoulders we just want to make sure the players are going to be ready every week and step up, knowing what needs to be done to win the game and get points."
On Bryan Namoff's performance in the midfield:
"I think Bryan played very well. He opened up on the whole side for Freddy (Adu) - on the second goal for us with the overlapping runs. I think he was a handful today. We can shift and he can play as a right back and as I said everyone is important and Bryan did a very good job today."
D.C. UNITED MIDFIELDER FREDDY ADU
On his goal:
"I had all the time in the world to set up for that. I give all the credit in the world to Bryan Namoff for making that overlapping run because the two defenders went with him and it just opened up the space and I just said 'hey man, if they give you the space you got to take advantage of it,' and I just let one ride."
On the game opening up:
"When you're up 3-1, it kind of opens up the game. When it was 2-1 the game was a little tight, but when you get up and you score another goal they kind of throw everybody forward and it opens up and that was when we took advantage."
On recovering after three losses last week:
"It's funny - everybody always thinks of teams, 'this is going to crack them' whenever we lose a couple games, but the character of this team is unbelievable. We just bounce back from everything and you just never see the confidence go away from the guys' eyes. Everybody still has confidence and we just go out there and fight for each other."
On what he said to Moreno after he scored the PK:
"We were joking around and I told Jaime, I said, 'When are you going to score an actual goal?' because he scores PK's all the time. And he was like, he scored, and he looked at me and was like 'I scored a goal!' and I was like 'yeah, you scored a goal!'"
On the team losing three games last week:
"It's supposed to just completely knock the team down, but not D.C. United, man - not D.C. United. You can just see it in the guys' eyes, everybody has so much confidence - no matter what, no matter what. And it all starts from Peter [Nowak]. We believe in ourselves and we go out our do our job. We just went out there and took it to them."
D.C. UNITED DEFENDER BRANDON PRIDEAUX
On the win and upcoming games:
"It's always important to win at home, because it is usually difficult to win on the road. But, we still feel confident in our team and lately we've played well on the road, so there's no reason why we can't go to Colorado or wherever and get points."
On Boswell bouncing back from two own goals:
"Bobby's got a lot of character. Mistakes happen and, you know, he's bounced back well and continued to play well. He feels bad about the mistakes, but they happen all the time to defenders - it's just kind of the nature of our position. He's really done a good job and played with confidence. He did the same thing tonight that he's done all year."
On Boswell fitting in with the team as a rookie:
"He's done well. He has fit in, he's a real solid defender, he's smart and reads the game well. He's fit in perfectly - he definitely makes our team better and it's great to have a bunch of quality defenders now and not just 11 players."
D.C. UNITED MIDFIELDER BRIAN CARROLL
On the team's play in the midfield:
"They were only playing with two in the [central] midfield, so it allowed one of our guys to be a little more open and when we'd win the ball it would allow us to get out and get forward or get wide quick. So, it was just a matter of getting the ball controlled and finding Ben [Olsen] or Christian [Gomez] or somebody wide as soon as possible."
On whether Salt Lake's defensive strategy allowed D.C. to play well:
"I think they so. They pinched their outside guys in because they were only playing two in the middle, so it allowed us to play out wide to our outside backs or outside midfielders right away."
On playing Colorado on Saturday:
"We haven't played there at all this season. If I can remember correctly, I don't think we got a point there last year. We did well against them at home last year and it's just a matter of taking that confidence from the performance against them at home and trying to transfer it in playing against them on the road and trying to keep the altitude out of our heads."
REAL SALT LAKE HEAD COACH JOHN ELLINGER
On the team's performance:
"I thought we gave the ball away. I thought we stood there and watched them attack our goal. The first principle of defending - once the ball is lost you fight to win it back, and we didn't fight to win it back."
On where the team goes from here:
"Even in the first half we had moments when we played well, but in the second half, we broke down, we brown down and broke down again. It's just unacceptable. I'll take full responsibility, because I'm the head coach. It's got to start sometime time, so today would've been a nice place to start.:
On the play of goalkeeper Jay Nolly:
"[Christian] Gomez, Jaime [Moreno], Freddy [Adu] - they can play some ball. If you don't put pressure on them, they're going to pick their spot and they're going to bury it. It really doesn't matter who was in goal."
REAL SALT LAKE FORWARD JASON KREIS
On the team playing better than the 5-1 score:
"I was having this discussion with somebody the other night about losing games and big scores that you feel like you didn't play that poorly and I think that we just allowed D.C. to run all over us tonight, from the beginning to the end. When you allow a team like D.C. time and space on the ball as we did tonight, they're going to punish you."
On the team's mood after Tarley's goal made the score 2-1:
"I felt that it was fairly good. I thought the guys were feeling confident about what we were doing and again, I think we played well enough when we had the ball - we created enough chances, and we felt like we were in the game. It's always going to hurt to give away goals right before halftime, I think that crushed us. And then to give away another goal when we worked so hard to get back in the game, continues to hurt us. So, we're a team that's continually learning."
On the team's mood at this point in the season:
"Dismal. Dismal. It's tough, because now we've lost three in a row and two of those last ones were at home, so you know, obviously when you lose road games like this you can swallow them, but you have to win the games at home in order to do that - and having not done that the last two games, we'll be up against it on Saturday."
REAL SALT LAKE FORWARD MELVIN TARLEY
On his first career MLS goal:
"I had a pass from Andy [Williams] and saw the goalkeeper come out and took my first touch and I was - I saw that I had a chance to get in [to goal] before the guy who was coming [back to defend] and I just wanted to hit and I took a chance and hit it and it went in."
On recovering after the loss:
"We just have to come back as we can from this game and come out there and play soccer."
On playing in MLS after three years with the USL's Minnesota Thunder:
"It feels good. Like my dad always said, as a player you want to go to the next level, and it feels great."
REAL SALT LAKE MIDFIELDER ROBERT SCARLETT
On his individual performance:
"My performance was not a good performance. I was not getting a lot of the ball and the coach started me up front and then the coach put me behind the play and it's kind of difficult to come back to play."
On the game:
"The score today was a very big score and I would like to see that score no more. So, we go back to the drawing board and come again and work very hard, so we can stop conceding goals."
On the team playing better than the 5-1 score:
"Yeah, we got a lot of chances to score, but we never put away our chances. D.C. put away their chances and they got the game. It's just one of those things and we'll have to come again."
On how the team is feeling at this point in the season:
"We feel so, so, so bad right now, you know? Very, very bad. We want to make it to the playoffs, man. We want to go to the playoffs. It's a new team, but as you can see all of these guys have been playing in the league for six - some of these guys for six years and we got no problem with the guys. No one must complain. All of these guys have been in the MLS before and we can't complain."
